Vista - Denied access to "All Users" by mistake for C: drive

Hello everyone.

A tiny bit of background story here. My sister is visiting and she has a habit of toying around with and messing my mothers laptop up. Now for what we thought we should do: We created my sister her own account, and I was under the impression that my mums login was an "Administrator". Now I made the mistake of deny access for "all users" to the C:\ thinking that her login would still have access. So now, I've tried booting in safe mode, opening the cmd prompt as the administrator, type net user administrator /active:yes. I logged in as the new Administrator login, but still cannot make any changes to the permissions on her C:\. I can't change the owner either. I cannot create another user even. I'm lost and we can't even do a system restore. Getting which apparently has to do with permissions (gee, what a surprise). Please help!

Hello JMCSD, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Can you do a System Restore at boot using Method Two in this tutorial?

Shawn

Hello Brink,

Unfortunately I never created a system restore point or a backup cd of any kind. On top of that I can't open system restore, not in Safe Mode either.

Gah!... please don't give up on me. Believe it or not I actually work on computers all day for a communications company.... it's just i work with XP and i definitely don't specialize in windows so just bounce ideas off of me and I'll do whatever i can to make them work. I'll start taking screen shots if that would help. I bassicaly locked my C:\ to "All Users" and now *BANG*................. i can't do anything to get back into it. Even using the built in administrator account. So if i don't have a restore point... am i screwed completely or are there other suggestions???

JMCSD,

It looks like your only option is to format and reinstall Vista.

Sorry,
Shawn

............................................ .......................................................... okay......... is there ANYTHING ANYTHING ANYTHING I can do to back up some of the files my mother had on her c drive, whether or not it costs money? Man I'm so mad I made the simple mistake of assuming the "administrator" account also counts as a "user". Assumptions only make an (butt) out of yourself. I appreciate everyone and anyones help.

JMCSD,

If you have a retail Vista installation disc, then you may be able to do a Repair (upgrade) install to not lose anything. The previous installation of Vista may be placed in the C:\Windows.old folder after the repair install so you can copy what you needed back.

If not, then I suppose that you could take it to a computer shop in your area and have them pcopy the files off the hard drive for you. I'm not sure how much that would cost though.

Hope this helps some,
Shawn

Have you tried booting in safe mode and trying to fix the security perms from there?

Also, if its locked to all users have you tried using the SYSTEM account to gain access? Its not a normal thing to do however the SYSTEM has more access than every admin including the builtin one so it stands to reason it should be able to do something.

There is another thing I do not understand, how can you login and run explorer etc with no C:? That would lock you out of the windows folder?

Can you upload a screenshot of your C: security config please

Hi Guys,

I will be sure to upload a screenshot later today. I am actually at work right now and don't have access to that machine. A quick question though... how do I enable that SYSTEM account? Is it similar to enabling the built in administrator? or are there other steps?

The built-in Administrator account is the same thing as the System account. It's just another name for it.

Ah I see. Yep. Tried activating the Administrator account and then started in safe mode yet I still can't change the C:\ permission levels .